Book Recommendations

[Burn A Flag]

I may have the opportunity to get some books for Christmas this year, and I am curious what people on here would recommend as far as leftist literature.

Most of the leftist Lit i've read includes: Trotsky: Terrorism and Communism, Marx and Engels: The Communist Manifesto, Guerrilla Warfare by Che, and The Revolution Betrayed by Trotsky.

Does anyone recommend Das Kapital and if so where can I find the whole set for a decent price used or something?

Also other good books? Imperialism the Advanced Phase of Capitalism?

Advice would be nice before I buy any of these.

[Spawn of Stalin]

Just look for Lenin's selected works, I have the 12 volume edition but there are one and two volume editions out the which just inlude the essentials. Alternatively look for individual writings, Left Wing Communism, Imperiailism, One Step Forward and State and Revolution are all excellent, the Chinese state used to publish low cost paperbacks of all these in the 60s and 70s, they made many hundreds of thousands of copies so they are very easy to find and very cheap, I have dozens of them which I keep to give to new Party members, etc who need educating. I'd also recommend Stalin - The Foundations of Leninism and the History of the CPSUb Short Course.

I don't know about Kapital in the US but over here Oxford and Cambridge universities publish abridged versions which are generally available in high street bookshops. But if you want the real thing look for the three volume Soviet or Lawrence and Wishart edition. If you can find a good progressive bookshop, you shouldn't have trouble finding any of this stuff.

[Burn A Flag]

I dunno where to find a good bookshop here so I'm probably going to be buying online.

[Spawn of Stalin]

Check with local comrades, CPGB-ML has hundreds of books for sale including the ones I mentioned, US parties are probably no different.

[Red Future]

I would recommended the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressel it s an account of working class life in around 1905 in the UK.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

You may want to read Marx's Wage Labor and Capital and Value, Price and Profit before you venture into Capital. There's an International Publishers print of both together than sells for around $5.

I would also recommend Marx's The Civil War in France and Engel's Origins of the Family, Private Propery and the State.

Finally, Pannekoek's Workers Councils (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1453716270?ie=UTF8&tag=prikeypre-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1453716270) is most definitely worth a read.

All of these can be found fairly easily (besides the last, which I linked to).

[Bitter Ashes]

Seeing as though this is the DIY forum I'd probably advise that you will get much more practical benefit from a good cookbook, or some books on home maintaincance, engineering, electronics, etc. There's no shortage of people who can talk about dialectical materialism in the movement (which scares the shit out of me tbh), but there is a real shortfall of people with skills to help thier comrades, as well as maintain themselves in a way that they can put maximum time and effort into the fight.

p.s. You'd be surprised what you can find in the local library. If what you're looking for isn't there then you may be able to order it from another library for a small charge (usualy a backbreaking 10p or something!). Theory you only read the once, so it's ideal for library reading and besides Carnavore will work out what you're buying from WH Smiths anyway. A book stout cookbook will serve you well and taking the time to find one that appeals to your cooking style is well worth the bother. I personaly recommend reading anything written on "The Home Front" during WWII as it's all very cheap, but nutricous and reasonably tasty and most is veggie too.

[ellipsis]

WH Smiths? that sounds so english! also isn't carnivore a FBI program>

[Os Cangaceiros]

Strike! by Jeremy Brecher

[Apoi_Viitor]

I may have the opportunity to get some books for Christmas this year, and I am curious what people on here would recommend as far as leftist literature.

Well, before you go out and spend money on a book, here's some advice...

1. Download Soulseek
2. Search for *Insert Book Name Here*
3. ????????
4. PROFIT!

Also, you can find many of the old Marxist/Anarchist classics on-line for free, because they've entered the public domain. EX: http://libcom.org/tags/peter-kropotkin

As for books though, I'd recommend reading more of Marx's work, along with anything by Lenin, Althusser or Parenti.

[Bitter Ashes]

WH Smiths? that sounds so english! also isn't carnivore a FBI program>
Either FBI or NSA. I forget which. Either way, there's a US Intelligence monitoring station just a few miles up the road to me called Menwith Hill that's used for such things and as you'd imagine they're very happy to share thier discoveries with MI5/Special Branch/etc